Plane crash kills dad on beach, injures daughter

Jul. 28, 2014
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Plane crash / WTSP

by WTSP-TV, Tampa, Fla.

by WTSP-TV, Tampa, Fla.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Authorities say a father was killed and his daughter seriously injured when a small plane crash landed along Florida's Gulf Coast near Venice Beach.

Around 2:45 p.m. ET, Venice Airport contacted Sarasota Sheriff's Office regarding a small plane in distress that could not make it back to the airport.

Ommy Irizarry and his family from Georgia were walking on Caspersen Beach, about a mile from the Venice Beach pier, and may not have heard the plane approaching, according to a witness.

"I didn't hear anything, actually," said Zack Arceneaux, and speculated the plane's engine might not have been working when the plane crashed.

Irizarry, 36, was killed. His daughter, Oceana Irizarry, 9, was critically injured and airlifted to All Children's Hospital in Tampa.

Other family members were so traumatized they also sought treatment at a Venice hospital.

The pilot of the 1972 Piper Cherokee, 57-year-old Karl Kokomoor, and his 60-year-old passenger, David Theen, both of Englewood, Fla., were rescued and were uninjured, according to Wendy Rose, community affairs manager for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

National Transportation and Safety Board investigators have headed to the site.